Stratum 14: A Site Analysis

Dating of the collection was’nt avalible for the lack of stratagraphy but bone from one the the skulls was date. It returned a date of 1000 BP, the date was retreived using the uranium thorium method. These skulls have been shown to show links to those from Kow Swamp.

Stratum 3 in the Blue Mountain site lacks any evidence of settlement or subsistence; on the other hand, this could be evidence that the people who were there were nomadic rather than sedentary. The 4,534 debitage pieces and 234 cores suggest that it was a hunter-gatherer society and they used local obsidian which means that they could have had no contact with other people and likely did not travel very far. The majority of their tools were also made from the outer part of the cores.

The type site for this culture complex is the Oxbow Dam site in southeastern Saskatchewan where this unique projectile point was first found, and the culture complex is distinguished by its unique basal shape. The Oxbow point is very side notched as well as basally notched, in a way that gives the point a distinctive base resembling two circular ears. This cultural tradition first appears at 5200 +/- 130 radio carbon (RC) years before present (RCYBP) at the Gray Site, immediately following, and possibly evolving from, the Gowen complex. Gowen points also exhibited an concave base and side notching, giving them a similar, but lesser ear-shaped base. The most conclusive and consistent radiocarbon dates for Oxbow Culture are approximately 4000 to 4400 years before present, with the majority of Oxbow sites on the Northern Plains falling within this time range (Peck

The basement rocks in the western Slave carton is older than 2.8 Ga and the known oldest rocks are the genesis found along the Acasta River which is about 3.6- 4.0 Ga old, which is estimated using the zircon dating (Isachsen & Bowring, 1994; Padgham,1992). Following by 2.8 - 3.5-Ga old genesis of Point Lake and genesis under the Yellowknife Greenstone belts, which exist over 3 Ga (Isachsen & Bowring, 1994; Padgham,1992). The major rock types include granitic to tonalitic genesis, migmatitic genesis and granodiorites, which have been deformed and metamorphosed (Fyson & Helmstaedt, 1988; Isachsen & Bowring, 1994; Padgham,1992). In the eastern Slave Craton, the basement is not confined but is correlated to the Nd-Pb isotopic boundaries

The last article talks about the 59th Unnamed Cave, in Florida. This cave is located in the eastern part of the Florida Panhandle. From the dates of the artifacts and the dates of the glyph, the site was occupied in the Late Woodland period. The cave was discover in 2007 when a group of cave explorer saw fine engravings on the wall. This site was the first cave art site that was found in Florida and it is the second rock art site that was found in the states. Rock art is very rare in Florida, but now with the site found there is a wider perspective on the importance of rock art. The site did not only include the petroglyph drawing of the past, but it included some artifacts that was use to help date the time that the cave was occupied.

This also accounts for 6 and 8 in Figure 3.3. In Figure 3.3, in the section labeled 5, I found a coin from 288 – 337 A.D. Because this section was a mixture of chalk rubble and topsoil and by the date of the coin, we can conclude this section is back fill from the building of the pathway in 1136.

The Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania was first excavated in the 1970’s by James M. Adovasio, and was continuously played with up into the 1990’s. Meadowcroft is the longest standing case for archaeological evidence of the pre-Clovis culture in the Eastern United States, and has dates ranging from 12,800-16,175 RCYBP. This sites’ importance to the pro pre-Clovis case is up there with the Monte Verde site, and not only because both were among the first to be discovered. Especially since this Pennsylvania site had such a large range of lithic artifacts unearthed that it was enough to define the Miller complex which “consists of thin bifaces, including one lanceolate point, the Miller Lanceolate small prismatic blades; retouched flake tools and blades; and debitage related to latestage core and biface reduction and tool kit maintenance.” This sequence of tools helped to identify the type of tools that pre-Clovis people used, and let archaeologists acknowledge the differences between pre-Clovis and Clovis

When Prof. Green wrote his conclusion in his March 1969 report, he proposed that there was evidence for Pueblo I-III periods and postulated that Basketmaker II & III materials should be found in the same area with more survey efforts. All the stone implements I catalogued and analyzed were given the provenience of “surface” (Green 1969, 1970).

The Archaic was a time of mostly small societies that engaged in intensive foraging, with the adoption of farming coming in the late Archaic. By the Middle Archaic we see more cemeteries with burials in mounds, a move towards sedentism, and groups claiming the rights to resources. During the Late Archaic there was a move towards population growth, the beginning of the Eastern Agricultural Complex, trade, pottery, storage, and sedentism. Two Archaic mound building societies were Watson Brake and Poverty Point. Watson Brake in Louisiana is one of the oldest mound sites in North America with dates of 3500 – 3000 B.C., with 11 mounds that are up to 25 feet, connected by ridges, interior ritual spaces, and was occupied year round. Poverty Point is located in northeastern Louisiana and was a pre-agricultural ceremonial center. Poverty Point covers 494 acres and took more than 1,236,007 cu ft of soil to construct (Fagan 2005: 418). Objects discovered at Poverty Point show that they took part in long distance trade and made use of a variety of exotic materials. These materials included: slate, copper, jasper, quartz, and as stated in our lecture there were materials coming from as far as 1,400 miles

What is most riveting however, is its age. Using organic material embedded in the façade of its stone pylons, Gobekli Tepe’s lower levels have been carbon to as early as 12,000 years ago, making them the earliest architectural forms ever discovered (German Archaeological Institute). This predates nearby sister site Nevali Cori by about 500 years (Author unknown), and the world’s first city Catalhoyuk by 1,500 years (Symmes 2010:48). The vast, more complex scale, as well as the marked artistry and sophistication above that of its cruder sister sites, makes the very existence of Gobekli Tepe practically an impossibility. Ian Hodder, director of Stanford’s archaeological program states that Gobekli Tepe is “unbelievably big and amazing, at a ridiculously early date; many people think it changes everything [that] all our theories are wrong.” (Symmes 2010:46 ).

The examination of this site would answer questions that are relevant to the development and abandonment of this site. Proposed excavations will begin by coring the soil of the most significant anomalies from the resistivity results. Soil coring will be done in each of the proposed 2 meter by 2 meter squares previously chosen for excavation (see attached site map plan). Soil cores yielding positive results, will then lead to shovel test pits; from there transecting trenches connecting those test pits will be excavated. It must be recognized that the precise location of the area must available for subjective change based on the results from coring and test pits. The objective of this excavation is to provide characterizations of features and sequences of the archaeological components of this particular archaeological site. There will be a need for the examination of all artefactual and ecofactual remains that are

From the area that was excavated a total of 30,306 artifacts were excavated from the abandonment deposit. Of these 58.09% related to building materials, 1.15% were classified as ceramics, 30.78% were classified as ecological, .29% were classified as farmware, 3.02% were classified as glass, .56 % was classified as munitions, 1.6% as personal, .17% as general tools and 4.34% as utensils. The focal point of the following review of the data will be on the use of space in terms of foodstuffs, general working areas, and

Serpent Mound is the largest prehistoric effigy mound documented, in the world. The human- made earthwork has fascinated people for years, especially archaeologists who wanted to know who built the earthwork and when. Frederick Putnam did some of the earliest archaeological excavations and reconstructions at Serpent Mound in the 1880s (Putnam 1890). Since the 1880s, several researchers have worked at the site trying to unravel Serpent Mound’s history. Researchers have proposed two primary hypotheses that the mound was either created by Adena culture (~2,300 years ago) or Fort Ancient culture (~900 years ago) (Herrmann 2014, p. 119). The most recent work done shows strong evidence for the mound being build ~2,300 years ago by Adena people (Romain

Characterized by their early adoption of bronze, the Argaric culture quickly gained dominance over other societies. However, El Argar reached its peaked after a severe drought. According to data from ‘Eco-ruin ‘felled early society’, the early civilization was drained of its natural resources causing their own downfall. These findings were based off of pollen preserved in compost deposits located in the mountains of eastern Andalucía, Spain. In addition, researchers drilled a sediment core from the Canada del Gitano basin in the Andalucía Sierra de Baza region. With information from the abundance of pollen types and from the sediment core, scientists were able to create the same vegetation that covered the area in past times. With their given findings, researchers were able to gather a pollen sequence that was able to tell them how human settlement and climate affected the ecosystems. Keeping this in mind, archaeologists are convinced that shortly before the collapse of the Argaric culture, something happened to the ecological structure of the area.

The earliest strata layers are layers 6, figure 3.2, in the eastern portion and layer 4, figure 3.3, in the western portion. These layers share a common buried soil layer that covered the chalk base, I recommend that samples of layers 6, figure 3.2, and layer 4, figure 3.3, soil be sent for analysis to determine if there can be any faunal evidence of the area before the construction of the barrow. This is the existing ground layer that served as the base on which the barrow was built in the Neolithic period. Layer 5, figure 3.2, of the eastern portion and level 3, figure 3.3, of the western, were at one time one layer. This layer is representative of the Neolithic burial. In the eastern layer 5, figure 3.3, there are two posthole sized